Page 45 of Promise Not to Fall for the Rich & Famous

“Mr. Chase. Can I help you?” Cyree’s voice held an edge.

Carly had seen the guy around the resort, but she’d never learned his name.

“I thought I was going to be a part of this meeting,” he said, his face void of emotion.

Cyree arched a blonde brow. “And I thought we agreed that I would handle this myself.”

The wordawkwardscreamed in Carly’s head. As professional as The Royal Palm was, it seemed to have its flaws like any other place run by humans.

The attractive man held the woman’s gaze before turning his steely blue eyes on her. “Devin Chase,” he said, reaching to shake her hand. “I apologize for being late.” He pulled the chair beside Carly back a foot or two and took a seat.

The two looked like they’d just stepped off a movie set. Cyree, playing the role of a woman who’d run her own company since the age of seventeen, and Devin playing the role of some heartless billionaire who’d stepped in to snatch the business away.

Cyree dragged her gaze off Devin and set it back on her. “Here at The Royal Palm, we like to make every one of our patrons feel safe. We go to great lengths to protect their information and, as you know, enforce several very strict policies in that regard.”

Great. Here it came. The meeting with Cyree would have been enough to embarrass Carly for days. But withMr. Emotionlessby her side to hear—or maybe even take part in—the lecture, that would be enough to keep her cringing for years.

The man cleared his throat to gain the floor. “That being said,” he started, “we have a strict policy against dating patrons.”

“I wouldn’t saystrict,” Cyree said. She straightened her shoulders, keeping a trained gaze on Carly andnotthe man who’d barged into the meeting. “There’s been a lot of confusion where the policy is concerned, mainly because it gets changed from year-to-year, and sometimes we fail to have our staff members look over the edited parts of the contract before signing. For that reason, we’re sure you weren’t aware of this.” Her eyes shot to Devin Chase for a seething blink.

It was in that moment Carly recalled what Christian had said; something about Cyree having a love/hate relationship with one of the men on staff. This had to be him.

“The fact is,” Devin said, “we’ve had a number of calls come in asking us if a woman by the name of Carly Bridger works here.”

Hearing her name aloud—knowing it’d been on the lips of complete strangers—made her heart clunk out of beat.

“Our staff knows better than to confirm personal details; anyone of importance who wishes to get hold of you can do so through private means.” He angled his chin down, a silent prompt for her to agree.

“Right.” Carly managed a nod in return, but her mind was racing. She couldn’t exactly guess at what they planned to dowith her. Write her up? Fire her? Make her come out with a statement denying the whole thing? She hated the idea of losing her job, but it was nothing compared to gaining Gage Craven. If that was her punishment, she’d take it. Of course, that would mean their time together would be cut short.

“We’re not saying this is your fault,” Cyree said. “We don’t believe you breached the privacy policy, which is of upmost importance, but the tabloids are hungry. Already, they know who you are, and they want to get as much information about you as they can.”

“Which will inevitably lead to unwanted paparazzi trying to sneak onto our shore,” the man added.

Carly silently wished that Devin would stand up, turn around, and walk himself right out of the meeting. She couldn’t help but think his idea of disciplinary action would be stricter than Cyree’s. “So what do you think we should do?” she asked, anxious to get this over with.

“Well, to determine that, we reached out to the other resorts around town and asked if they, too, had been getting phone calls. They confirmed that they had.”

“So that means, what? That they don’t actually know which resort we’re at yet?” Carly asked.

“Right,” Cyree said.

Devin Chase shifted in his seat. “Or that theydidn’tat the time. They may know by now.”

Cyree shook her head. “They don’t know. And for the sake of privacy for our patrons and staff members alike, we’d like to keep it that way. We understand that Gage will catch a flight to Maui next week to start filming. We think it’d be best, considering the circumstances, that he finish out his training with Marcus.”

Carly’s shoulders dropped.

“It’s not what it sounds like,” Cyree said. “We’ll compensate you for your flight back home, or pay for you to stay in a nearby hotel if you’d like to stay close. Once Mr. Craven is gone, we’ll bring you back on and you’ll pick up the training appointments we have scheduled for you. And of course, we’ll pay you for the week you’re gone as well.”

She hated the idea of saying goodbye to Gage a week early. But if she stayed nearby, they could sneak and see each other after his lessons each day. “Okay,” she said. “I’d like to stay at a place nearby. And thank you. That’s generous.”

The man cleared his throat as if he was about to speak up once more, but Cyree shot to her feet. “And thankyoufor being so understanding. Situations like this can get a little sticky, so we appreciate your cooperation.”

“Yeah,” Carly said, coming to a stand as well. She reached out and shook the woman’s hand. Mr. Chase stood up in time to offer a firm handshake of his own.

“If we can take care of this in a timely manner, it’d be much appreciated. Say, by noon?”